Ok county guys and gals,what tires are you running? Which ones give you the most bang for your buck. Right now we have 4 machines still on 14.00X24 and 1 on 17.5X25.We seem to have the best luck with Bridgestone VKT on our 14.00 machines.But now its about time to shoe the 17.5 machine so was wondering what others have been having good luck with.
We've ran 17.5s for the past ten years. Always had Michelns. Have never had a failure of any kind. Haven't had any flats. Only thing I don't like about them is the chains get down in the lugs and you lose a lot of traction. That happens during the first 30% of tread wear. After that they won't stay wedged into the lugs so it's not a problem. Here's some pics. The chains with the crossbars running at an angle across the tire are down in the lugs. Crossbars running straight across tires are not.
Here's a pic of these tires new.
Michelin snow tires all but eliminate chaining Just put on a set of BKT snow tires not to much to report yet price was waay less than Michelin Continentals were a favorite could always get a few recappings from them dont seem to be able to get them anymore
Being as how the OP's location is listed as Missouri, he may not be looking for snow/ ice traction.
Yeah, not sure what part of Missouri He's in??? Even if he's a "Southerner", South end of the State, he'll still get snow. It just doesn't stay quite as long. A Township near me has a set of snow tires on an all wheel drive machine. They only chain up if we have serious drifting that requires a plow. Their Township terrain is much flatter than mine too. I don't have all wheel drive and I have some steep, hilly terrain. Regardless of tire type, I need chains.
Snow type makes all the difference in the world when plowing. Dry cold snow seldom requires chains. That wet heavy stuff that we seldom get, but you guys get a lot of, is hard pushing and has little traction with rubber once you spin a 1/4 turn and turn it to ice.
I tried "no chains" one time. 6" of medium snow on frozen gravel roads. Spun out climbing a hill. Now I've lost all momentum. Slid my way to the bottom of the hill. Got off the road onto the ditch and roadbank where there was vegetation to get some traction on. Row boated my way to the top of the hill with the blade. Went back to the shed and chained up. Now I'm chaining up in the middle of the night, very cold. Didn't try that again!!!!
It's unreal how big a difference snow tires make. My grader sits in the winter, and I run an L 70 with a box blade. Snow grips make such a difference that the company bought them for all 10 loaders. Sometimes the odd early storm hits before the tires are changed, and you realize how spoiled they make you. My grader came with 6 Michelin snow grips but I have only used them one winter. The summer rubber are Bridgestone but I find them rough. I will say that I am really glad to be clear of bias ply tires. Always hated those early morning flat spots
I totally agree. We switched to Radials in 1995. Last time I had a flat was 1995. We switched to 17.5s 10 years ago. That was almost as dramatic as going to Radials.
My county has 6 graders, 5 run a tread pattern similar to oversd's on the rear and a snow tire pattern on the front. Mine is the only one with Snow tires all the way around. I've got 2400 hours on them and haven't had to chain up yet. Even with 30-40% tread they outperform the large block pattern. I can't say enough good about them, until you back into a field drive to turn around and get stuck in 2" of mud!
I think there's always a trade-off. Are your machines all wheel drive??
That's my only gripe. They are fabulous in winter. On the flip side, the OP has never chimed in to clarify what kind of work he does. If it's dirtwork , then SnowCat's aren't going to make much sense.
Once people run snow tires in the winter they don't go back to those slippery block treads Even if chains were needed for extra tough hills I would have snow tires underneath and on the steers We leave them on all year for gravel road work they run down the road nice and smooth and don't leave big marks when you turn around or wheel pack fresh gravel I did see one get stuck this spring found a frost boil in a culdesac the top quarter of the tires were showing on the stuck side when I got there Normally its wise to keep the tandems on good ground
We leave them on year round too. But just even a road shy of gravel and they spin a bit and go sideways.
Yep. I thought of that but let it go. I do a LOT of dirt work.....
Having never ran them I have nothing to compare to so be gentle on my comments. Knowing my roads and inclines I climb, I believe I would still have to run chains. So if I do have to run chains, what is the gain of running snow tires?
I just noticed the OP hasn't been back..... Maybe we are talking to ourselves??
Like the pictures, we run goodyear winters on our 140h and 140m on all wheels factory size with good results, is that wing in the picture mounted to your mould board? or am I looking at it wrong?
Winter tires the rubber is softer and makes for better traction without putting chains on as often also you will find that your front end won't slide as easy on you when ice blading or plowing and winging. thanks
Yes on the AWD, 4 12M3's, a 672 GP and a 672G. My first machine was a worn out 772B-H on bias-ply, the next two were new 143H's with large block radials and now the 12M3 with the snow tires. We don't do much ditching anymore, budget cuts and management that doesn't know a graders capability but loves gradall's. I haven't cut a ditch in almost two years. Pulling berm and scraping for brine is about all we do now so the snow tires are fine.
Oh no not trying to be harsh on you at all just like a good talk about snow tires You just need to come run one of our blades for a while
Having never run chains, I have to ask can you run full speed with them? We swap our winter grips back to rock tread in summer. I see the government graders run snow grips year round, but they don't see much mud. They did leave snow grips on my old 730 for a few years an yes I thought they were NWAF in mud.
With chains on running from one road to another 4-5 gear max for me in the 140m any faster you will start breaking cross links, that speed with your chains on really tight. thanks
I can't make a comparison with snow grips to chains, because I have never run chains. Speed is one thing. One of the roads I did for the government last year was an hour drive just to get there. Couldn't imagine having to poke along with a set of chains, or have to put them on, and take them back off. I noticed one of the companies that plow woods roads for logging companies have chains hanging on the wing frame, but they do have snow tires on. Any time I have plowed main roads for the government, they want you to go fast in order to throw the snow back and keep the banks down. Couldn't do that with chains I guess. A lot of owners on the front end loader forum say they can't see the cost being worth it, but my bosses say they have been able to double the amount we plow, with loaders that is. My 940 is wingless buried in a snowbank this year. My boss won't even consider putting the wing on for less than full government rate, and too many guys with 20 year old graders will do it for almost half the price.
Thanks for the input. It surprises me how many of you guys up north don't run chains.I'm in northern Missouri and we chain up almost every time we have to push.We have run before on the snow tread and no chains but seems like you always get in that one spot where you need them.So we always start out with them on then if the guys feel they don't need them they can pull them off.
Yeah, it's an old wing designed to be used on a fixed frame grader. The "brace" bar would fasten between the tandems. The blade would be in line with the wing. I took that picture to show how high I can pile snow with the wing. It requires a "high level of maturity" though because you put a LOT of stress on the moldboard.
15mph is the max I'll run with chains on. If on pavement I'll slow to 12mph or so. We use very heavy duty 2 link chains. I haven't broken a crossbar in ten years. I just looked on one of the cardboard cans they come in for a thickness of the link material but it doesn't say. Does say a pair of them weigh 346lbs.
I blade snow at 14mph with chains on. I've only lost one chain in 27 years and that was because the side chain broke. I blade 50 miles of roads, all within an 8 mile square. So to get over them I'll run at least 100 miles.
I border I-35 10 miles South of Iowa. You anywhere close??
It's rare we run chains now. Unless it's freezing rain or something. With the fenders, it tough to run chains. And it's tough to do anything at speed with chains. Here we get a lot of wind, so you can save yourself a lot of work by throwing the snow and not leaving a ridge to hold the drifting.
Same here, we use to build our fenders in house, but these new machines came with them and they sit too low for chains. Excellent for keeping the Windows clean though! Like everything else in life there are compromises to be made.
Must be hard to keep the machine from kicking side ways, you sure have a lot of reach for sure, our wings hook to a wing post attached to the grader frame by your door and behind the tandems to a bolt on bracket from Craig plows, the wing is hydraulic with a telescopic ram that pushes out about 5 feet for extra reach good for benching snow drifts, Craig front plow and stingers in the mould board for ice blading, we make all our own chains in house cross chains ever 4th link, I have 60 roads that I am assigned to look after, l really like your pictures thanks.
Your welcome. Yep the wing pushes the grader sideways. Takes some maturity to use it without tearing it up. It's not made for the forces of today's machines. I take a lot of pictures. I especially like taking grader pics with snow. The white background brings out the machines very well.
Our 140M3 AWD's were ordered with Michelin SnoPlus 17.5x25's, and factory fenders, so chains would be impossible without removing fenders. Since we moved away from big lug tires, we have been getting longer life, and much more even tread wear. I always liked running the Bridgestone snow wedge, and was never "immobilized" for more than about 10 minutes, no matter how bad the snow was. With all of the power, weight, and traction available, it's amazing how much snow some of these machines will go through without chains. I'm not new to this game, ('81), and I'm very lucky to be running top of the line equipment. For some, a good set of chains are a necessity. For others, if you don't need mud traction, go with snows.
A Township near me, with a much richer budget than ours, has a set of snows they swap onto the machine in Winter months and then swap back to regulars in Summer. Their idea is to save wear on the Snows. I don't know if that's resourceful or not. I've never had Snows. But then I've never had AWD either. So I'm stuck with chains.
Regrooved Bridgestone Snow Wedge on the front of my '08 140M AWD. Time consuming, but I got another season of pretty good traction out of them.
I was surprised to see someone mention recaps in one of the above posts. We have 17.5 x 25's on our machines, and rarely ever get enough life out of the sidewalls to recap. We find the Michelins are extremely bad for sidewall cracking. We've also tried Bridgestone, and have had about the same luck. It seems as though they are built to fail after a certain amount of time. Our local tire shop sold us some "off shore" tires at about half the price of Michelins. I guess we will find out how well they last. We also use snow tread tires year round, and though the tread wears a bit faster, they generally will crack the side walls before the tread wears too much for decent traction. As mentioned above they are not good in mud. We plow about 400 miles of road with 2 machines, so we have to travel too fast for chains. (We average 17 to 20 mph when plowing). DDD
They put Michelin snow tires on my old 730. They left them on till I wore them out, then they recapped them till They were wore out again.They were weather cracked so bad that I refused to walk the machine anywhere outside of town, so they had to float me.
Are you in the path of that 30" of snow that's forecast for parts of the east and blazing winds? Still got winter rubber on your 940? Sounds like you could be busy.
Naw it was all around us. We got about 10cms with high winds. Places about an hour away got over a foot. Supposed to get a good dumping Thursday. I think the province didn't appreciate the grader bill for last winter, so my 940 is buried in snow up to the mirrors till spring. I'M a loader man for the winter again. I don't know if you saw the video on the news about the guys getting chased by the cops on a couch through the drive thru at McDonalds or not, but that is where I live.
Okay- I thought they said some places could get even more then that. With massive wind it plugs things either way. I think I read a Global FB post right after it happened. At that time they had the two that were left behind in custody but didn't have the quad driver.
I'll jinx myself, but we've only had maybe 5" of snow all Winter and that was in 3 snows. Worked outside at my farm all day today. 62 degrees at 5:30 p.m. 20 degrees above normal. Farmers are applying Anhydrous. The God's Must Be Crazy.
Same thing this storm. We got 6 inches, and all around us got hit hard. I'll be headed out around 3 in the morning. Friend of mine posted that it was 16 in Calgary yesterday. I'll be glad to see the asphalt plant going again here cause I'll be glad to get back to work.
Yeah- It's been melting here for like 3 days straight. Last week, -33 plus wind chill a couple days. This week, +13 here. My boss told me today, it's almost to the point where spots could be graded. We don't know what to hope for now. If we get snow, it'll push back grading, but any grading is really a little ways away yet.
How much snow would you normally see? Some of the pictures you posted did show some good accumulation. I wouldn't have guessed that for that far south, but I wouldn't have expected low temps in New Mexico either, and heard from others that at times, it got temps you'd consider seasonal for Montana.
I'm not a "Global Warming, the skies falling" type guy so don't take this wrong. Go back 20 years, 60". Go back 10 years, 30". The last 5 years, 10". I haven't pushed this year. Last year pushed once. Two years ago pushed three times. Three years ago didn't push. I was working at my farm today. Late afternoon, took a break and drank a beer. T-shirt weather, high 60F's. Neighbor is a very large farmer. They are putting on anhydrous. No frost. 20F degrees warmer than normal. We'll set record temps over the next few days. Go figure.
Well 60" isn't a lot different to here. I'm guessing we had that 3 years ago. I'm assuming it maybe melts a little in between snowfalls there. Last 3 years, there hasn't been hardly anything for snow. We probably have 3 feet of frost on typical ground (not drove over) thanks to a couple good shots of -35. A little cooler today but around 55*F last couple days. Get into the mountains west of me and they get real snow though. I'm not sure what to make of this global warming thing. Bunch of "Club of Rome" stuff.... They have been inundating us with "Climate Leadership Announcements" explaining how the dinosaurs never would have went extinct if they had a Carbon Tax. They're shutting down the coal plants and building windmills. Whole things not much fun in a cold climate.
50 years ago our snow would stay on the ground most of the Winter. Now it never does. We rarely have more than 24" of frost except in roadways. I think mankind has an impact on the environment for sure but hesitate to take complete credit. Don't mind doing my part though. I think mankind needs to step up and develop an alternate source that will support itself without tax subsidies.
If anyone is in the market for 6, 17.5-25, Michelin snoplus @95%+-, I have a set I would like to sell. I don't live in snow county, need tires more suited for my area. Thanks